


Better Habits

by kaaamaaal



Category: Smile For Me (Video Game)
Genre: Apologies, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, boris trying to be good-er, fluff near the end, kamal trying to be fair, mentions of teeth pulling, neither are perfect and neither have it all put-together but they're getting there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-03
Updated: 2019-09-03
Packaged: 2020-10-06 05:03:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20501333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaaamaaal/pseuds/kaaamaaal
Summary: Who is he now? ‘Boris Habit’ doesn’t seem to fit anymore. The peck of the florist had clearly traveled up, up, up to his nasty brain and planted seeds of clarity, yet he simultaneously finds himself more confused than he’d been in years.





	Better Habits

Who is he now? _‘Boris Habit’_ doesn’t seem to fit anymore. The peck of the florist had clearly traveled up, up, up to his nasty brain and planted seeds of clarity, yet he simultaneously finds himself more confused than he’d been in years.

So much time and effort dedicated to a faulty dream. His dream, his identity. All of it, his fault. But now he knows the best thing to do now is to accept his wrongs and try to make the world a better place despite himself.

Yes. That’s what Boris Habit would do.

So why can’t he find the will to move?

A noise draws his ears as soon as he thinks that and he slowly moves his gaze toward the sight of familiar shoes and pants. The footsteps don’t stutter or hesitate in their path to where Habit’s slumped against a wall.

Well, it did make sense for Kamal to keep an eye on the kid that stayed behind, and the sound of Martha’s chugging is noticeably gone too.

After the kid had headed straight to his elevator, Habit figured there had to have been a plan proposed by the only one who knows how to access his office and _wasn’t_ stuck behind a hole. For all the fretting that came from the guy, Kamal has always struck him as more grounded than him.

Kamal is so smart and kind.

Kamal is so close by. No more footsteps.

The dentist takes a deep breath and finally looks up at his face.

His arms are crossed. The image of the stern-slash-nervous assistant brings on a wave of nostalgic fondness. Almost painful in light of everything happening between them. However, there was one thing that surprises Habit, and that’s Kamal’s eyes.

“How do you feel?”

No glaring. Weary and critical, but nothing as hard as hate.

“Also, do you like, still feel aligned with the Habitat’s purpose at all?”

“No, not at all.” Tears are budding at the corners of the dentist’s eyes. “But, Kamal… why does someone like you want to talk to me instead of, say, running away as soon as you turned Martha off?”

Kamal nods. “Well, I figured you’d change your mind, though it wouldn’t hurt to hear it in your own words… but that didn’t answer my first question, Habit. I’ll answer yours later.”

Assertiveness from a nervous assistant… he deserves that. Right.

Habit’s eyelids droop to a close.

“I feel stretched apart to the seams,” he whispers. “I do not know what parts of me to care about, which to throw away and which to keep. Who I should be.”

“That… is very vague.”

Unbeknownst to Habit, Kamal fiddles with the bottom of his shirt despite the stern tone he kept. “Can you elaborate?”

“I don’t know. It’s like… I wasted many years to a bad cause. So if I now want to “make up” for lost efforts, I should want to act more like the florist since that helps create smiles, yes? Yet I’m so tired. I want to leave it up to them.” Habit brings his knees up to his chest and lowers his head without much effort. Sleep creeps closer the more he thinks about what’s causing the hole in his chest.

There’s a pause in the conversation as Kamal thinks it over.

Suddenly the two men startle and glance toward the direction of the elevator as it chirrups its arrival back up. They exchange wide-eyed looks.

“O-oh.” Kamal clears his throat. “I pressed the button in preparation before coming in.”

Right. The kid’s definitely gone by now. Now there’s just a criminal dentist and a heroic assistant.

The strange situation coupled with said criminal dentist’s vulnerable expression seems to get to Kamal and he snorts.

Then sighs.

“You… say you aren’t feeling up to your evil deeds anymore,” comes a reply as he goes to lean against the wall next to his former boss.

“That’s good. But, Habit… you were venting. Like. A long drawn out vent to someone whose quarter-set of teeth you yanked out just a few moments ago. And then you say you don’t want to help people just 'cause you think you’re not up to the job. Those facts sound seriously bad, so I-I’m telling you 'cause I hope they’d sunk in.”

Habit flinches. He hadn’t even noticed about the venting, it had all spilled out of him without much push. A sudden dread propels a whirlwind of thoughts to clutter his mind, all with the theme of _'maybe the horrible-ness is ingrained too deeply at this point and I’ll keep hurting people’s smiles’_.

He couldn’t nor wouldn’t defend his actions, nor could he remove the word-blocking lump in his throat. So. Just a nod.

“Buuut… hey, look at me you big lug.”

The dentist reluctantly obeys.

Kamal stares at him, then gives the whole room a brief glance (resting heavily on the 'No Hitting’ posters) before coming back to bore into Habit himself. “But. You acknowledge you aren’t free of guilt and said you’d commit to getting better, and that’s also a thing. Plus, evil-you did have the sense to administer anaesthetics, and you did help put their teeth back in place… somehow. Thank god for your mushiness.”

With a shaky finger, Habit sweeps a tear away. “S-so, then, I’m not going bad again?”

“Nah, you’re not perfect but the apology I overheard sounds about fine. Your plan to betterment sounds about right to a non-expert like me, though even if it’s not it’s still a definite step in the right direction. You’ve got opportunities to correct it anyway. A-and… it’s fine to want to get away from all this for a while, so much went down and you deserve a rest. Physically and emotionally.”

Kamal’s grin is small and shaky, yet in Habit’s eyes it lights up the room. “That’s a… 'healthy’? 'Heroic’–no, 'happiness’. A Happiness Fact.”

Too overwhelmed to speak, Habit comes up close and–lending ample time for the other to move away–hesitantly pulls the shorter man into a firm hug. A muffled squeak burrows into his thick coat.

Fireworks go off in his chest. Oh, Kamal. So small and worried yet so brave and grounded. Flower Kid had been the same, too… they’re beyond good friends to him and he’ll do his BEST to help them and his head is spinning with every good thing he could possibly say about them ever, but for now Habit just loosens his hug, taps Kamal’s shoulder, and gazes into those questioning eyes as he says,

“It’s called a Happiness Fakt.”

“That’s what I said?” A laugh spills out, lilted high in what Habit recognizes as relief.

Well, of course–that shouldn’t be a surprise to him. His assistant is brave, but in the end Kamal was still confronting an unstable jerk after so much time trying to avoid him.

“Um.” Kamal’s amusement sobers curiously quick when he sees the dentist giving him a tender look. “So… a-and of course you’ve gotta apologise to the habiticians, which I can make time for helping you with if necessary. Though you’ll probably do fine.”

_'Wait’,_ Habit thinks._ 'Before that though. Before all of that.’_

He acts without thinking, abruptly pulling away from the embrace. Only to kneel and hold the other’s hands in his, to Kamal’s visible shock.

“I should’ve said this before hugging you. I’m deeply sorry for the hurtful things I did and said to you, and I wouldn’t mind helping you when I can. Thank you for sticking with me despite it all, Kamal.”

Kamal’s body turns to stone with the exception of his gaze flitting back and forth from his hands to Habit’s.

“W… wow, look at you, being on your path to virtuous living… by the way, you knelt down so fast that your hat fell. S'right there.”

A nervous energy radiates from him as he turns away to take the hat off the floor, then faces the dentist with a faraway frown.

His fingers caress the leather brim of the hat thoughtfully. “I appreciate the apology, doctor. Honestly, I… don’t think I can accept it yet? Though that doesn’t change my decision ‘cause I’ve been believing that you’ve got good intentions, it’s just that the methods for those intentions are weird and downright violent. Manipulative and, and… well. _Fuckin’ scary._”

Habit looks away, propping up a neutral but not un-kind expression.

“But now that you’re trying to get better my belief is confirmed… that florist led you to the right path, something I now want to help with too. So it makes sense to 'stick’ with you… or at least to check on you constantly. If I can somehow make your recovery smoother.”

“Call me Boris.”

Blinking slowly, Kamal locks eyes with the other man. “I… Whah?”

Boris has a tiny beam on his face and a painful yet good feeling in his heart. “I swear that I’m not taking your feelings or the gravity of what I did lightly and I’ll try harder to show that. I… I get now, that I made you frightened of speaking your mind. It must have taken much of your determination to do what you did, and that’s unfair because you’re allowed to be against me! Because anybody would be a hundred percent justified in not forgiving me. Or even just helping me, you’re not obligated to do that at all. Thank you.

"See, even now you’ve helped so much.” He lets out a weary chuckle. It’s Kamal’s turn to look away this time. “Yet I’ve been calling you by your first name for so long… you deserve my first name at this point! Especially if you’ll be around.”

Kamal doesn’t instantly reply, once again deep in thought. His furrowed expression isn’t one of hurt, distrust, or anything bad as far as Boris can make out. Hopefully.

He straightens up and once again glances toward the elevator’s direction.

“You’ve done great,” Boris repeats.

Actually, he’s still lost in a way. He doesn’t know what matters most about the person he is, should, or will be. Or what he’ll do to help the world.

And to know he isn’t forgiven hurts like a dagger, even if he himself doesn’t forgive his actions yet–it makes him wonder who else won’t forgive him.

However… the future feels more tangible now. Almost like he could make it out of the dreary present without crashing and burning. He could ask about himself later when he’s got energy for a conversation like that. And he won’t run away from his issues, not with Kamal, the Flower Kid, and several others Boris could ask help from. Even if he doesn’t know who the others will be yet.

Plus, not being forgiven doesn’t mean he can’t find help! Even if Kamal and the others can’t or - justifiably - _won’t_ help him later on, there’s others that can. Boris gently takes his hat while still wearing a smile, his lightheartedness rising as Kamal’s face slowly begins to ease up too.

The old Habit spiraled down thinking he was the only person who could bring about his dream. One last big mistake if he could help it.

“See you later, Kamal.”

“…I mean, I’m going down too, Boris you dummy.” Kamal snorts again, shaking his head as he walks past Boris to the elevator. A corner of his mouth is quirked upward. “Let’s go together, yeah?”

There’s laughter bubbling in his chest as he goes after Kamal.

“Of course! :-)”

**Author's Note:**

> hwuaah!! (<- sound of a sigh) I finally posted my first SFM fic evr..... theres venting in this BUT a lot in this is an attempt at character analyzing. let me kno ur thoughts n let me know any errors :-) wish u all a good day!
> 
> ♡♡♡ tumblr: @kamalbestbuy ♡♡♡


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